1/32 Devoran Quay

Simon

Flying Squad
The track lifting gang has been active around Launceston Road today and both the yard and loop have now gone, with just a basic through line now remaining in place. The centre of the contractors operations have consequently been transferred further down the line, here is a snap of the contractors Ruston just as it left for the new railhead.

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Although the line is in the hands of the contractors there are rumours circulating that the line may be temporarily handed back to the operators tomorrow as storms have once again put the Western line out of use - another through train perhaps?....

In the meantime here is a view of the desolation at the western end of the erstwhile loop:(

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D6356

Western Thunderer
It will make a great nature trail / cycle way for the new landowner. Great pics of "sad" times a case of time travel for the imagination - thanks.
 

Simon

Flying Squad
After the train had cleared the section, the contractors got back to work. The line was severed and all track recovered from the west end points through to the girder bridge east of the station limits, the railway line through Launceston Road is no more....

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D6356

Western Thunderer
Crikey ! End of an era, here to new joys, scrap boys have all the fun ! Great pics - can see the book being published in a few years time . Best shot is the panned one it has to be said, the railhead pics and desolation are so sad. I know its all for the right reasons but so very atmospheric. I hope that the last passengers enjoyed the detonators that accompany last runs.
Robert
 

Captain Kernow

Western Thunderer
Good morning.

I am a member of the South Hams Industrial Trust Society, allied with the Devon Operational Railway Circle.

We would like to apply to the British Railways Board to allow us to rent a small area of the Launceston Road station site for our new preservation society. There we plan to erect a garden shed, retrieved from a derelict allotment in Sidmouth, which will act as our preservation base. We are currently negotiating to purchase about 60 feet of track from a local gas works, which would allow us to operate our preserved PW trolley as a public attraction, with paying rides at 6d a go.

This will be a prelude to our planned purchase of a number of West Country pacifics and BR standard locos from Barry Scrapyard and the eventual complete reopening of the line from Bere Alston to Launceston Road and Okehampton, thus fulfilling an urgent regional transport need in 70 years time.

We are holding a jumble sale in a couple of months to raise funds, followed by a tombola and a line of pennies. We have asked the Bishop of Mallingford to open the event, which is sure to attract the attention of railway enthusiasts from all over the district.
 

oldravendale

Western Thunderer
The above is oh so reminiscent of the way the Main Line Steam Trust, now morphed in to the GCR, actually started 50 or so years ago.

And those photos of Launceston Road are so typical of "last trains" - the photos capture the atmosphere perfectly.

Brian
 

Peter Cross

Western Thunderer
It reminds me of the admiralty cordite works in Wareham when they ripped up the rails. The story goes that the scrap merchants were ask to quote for taking up steel rails. The winning bidder got to work only to find all the rails inside the works were bronze, to reduce sparks. One very wealthy scrap man after the job.
 

Simon

Flying Squad
Good morning.

I am a member of the South Hams Industrial Trust Society, allied with the Devon Operational Railway Circle.

We would like to apply to the British Railways Board to allow us to rent a small area of the Launceston Road station site for our new preservation society. There we plan to erect a garden shed, retrieved from a derelict allotment in Sidmouth, which will act as our preservation base. We are currently negotiating to purchase about 60 feet of track from a local gas works, which would allow us to operate our preserved PW trolley as a public attraction, with paying rides at 6d a go.

This will be a prelude to our planned purchase of a number of West Country pacifics and BR standard locos from Barry Scrapyard and the eventual complete reopening of the line from Bere Alston to Launceston Road and Okehampton, thus fulfilling an urgent regional transport need in 70 years time.

We are holding a jumble sale in a couple of months to raise funds, followed by a tombola and a line of pennies. We have asked the Bishop of Mallingford to open the event, which is sure to attract the attention of railway enthusiasts from all over the district.

Too early to say, but the track heading westwards from the end of the loop may end up being left in place, owing to an administrative error and the over enthusiastic deployment of an epoxy based ballast retention and track fixing medium back in the 1960s, something that was being trialled for the sea wall route I believe.

The engineers inform me that the remaining C10 turnout will however be removed, as it is needed for a new rail based sludge terminal near Sutton Harbour in Plymouth. Funded by Whippet Enterprises, this is apparently an important enterprise for the local economy which has some sort of effluent handling problem at the moment. All very baffling....

But as regards huts, at the time of writing the newly redundant yard foreman Mr Jim Crow at Launceston Road is hoping that the abundant vegetation may yet see one useful structure being left in place, we shall have to see what happens.

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Perhaps you could combine your efforts with the Devon Railway Operations Non Governmental Organisation that has recently held a few meetings in the village hall, who knows where it might all lead:confused:

By the way, I think you may however find considerable resistance to the idea of garden sheds from Sidmouth being imported when there are a number of useable redundant shed structures existing around Launceston Road, especially down by the sewage treatment works next to the freshwater cress company packing plant.

Anyway, all best wishes for your endeavours....
 

Mr Tiger Viking

Western Thunderer
Mr Beeching finally wielding the axe on Launceston Road. We had some fun times Simon, thank you for all those lovely running days. I look forward to seeing your new railway in the future.
Regards
Engine Shed Foreman - Worcester Road.
 

Simon

Flying Squad
So, here I am a few years later in another garden. A different setting in many ways, but one that I feel could benefit from a little garden railway activity in 1/32 scale.....

Something that would fit into the new garden and most important of all not compete with or even be comparable to what has gone before. It also needs to be interesting and entertaining and worthy of the likely huge effort required, especially given my mad methods and painful predilictions.

So, the plan is as per this sketch, the conceit being that is a junction, possibly just north of Falmouth, on the Southern and the route of the "APE". It has verticality, water - lots of it, and it has to have signals that will work, a small station with working lights, shunting interest, and scope for a very minor twig wandering off into the greenery, suitable for Rustons and obscure railcars..... Also, Dave has specified that you have to be able to change all of the points without resort to wooden chocks, dubious clamping arrangements or curses, not even muttered ones.

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The following pictures should hopefully give a better idea of how it might all work.

First off, looking "along the line" towards the shed, Dave is very tall so you can get an idea of how much the ground drops away from how little of him is visible in front of the shed. The BR brake van on the "siding" gives an idea of the scale of the whole thing.

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Looking up the garden from the other side of the new build shed, I am just here working on reinstating the "garden" shed that I dismantled when I started work on the project. The railway level is on top of the stone wall you can see through the open door glazing.

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Inside the new shed, lathe yet to be moved in, fiddle track to be built above lathe, exiting through gap in insulation to left. Actually I need to move the hole a bit away from the corner to suit the track geometry as it is panning out. As you can see I don't like chucking timber away and have managed to recycle all sorts of rhubarb into this project, in addition to purchasing quite a lot too.


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Here is the "water feature" set into position after Dave welded up the two halves it came in. I had it fabricated by a very helpful local engineering firm, in two pieces on account of weight but also because I needed to be able to get it through the quirky house attached to the garden, the only access to the garden being through the house.

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Here's an action shot of Dave welding up the two halves.

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Older readers may remember Dave's Collie Tess, who was a keen participant in earlier fabrications in another garden. Tess is now pretty venerable and spent most of the say under the kitchen table, only coming out to see what was going on a couple of times during the day.

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She is still a very lovely dog!

So with the water feature welded up I am now committed to this project, no more sensible than the last one but it will have to be realised much more quickly.

Thankfully I am blessed with the two Daves and other friends too who will all help to get 1/32 trains running once more on the eastern side of Bath.

There is nothing like a Dave.....

Simon
 

Dikitriki

Flying Squad
Hi Simon,

Nice to see you back with a new project. That looks quite a challenging garden to fit a line in.

There is nothing like a Dave.....

Simon

Indeed, though in our case, there's nothing like a Tim, without whom our DCC would be much the poorer!

Richard
 

Neil

Western Thunderer
I like that the railway works with the difficulties of the site rather than fights against them. It looks to give something a lot more interesting than the conventional 'wisdom' of layout design would throw up. The rest of the garden looks to be rather lovely and inviting, a wonderful setting for a railway.
 

Simon

Flying Squad
Thanks for your comments Neil - the garden is very lovely and I don't want to mess it up with the railway.

Not much progress apart from finish painting the water feature, which is now ready to be put into position I think. Looking at this in relation to the comments above seems a bit of a non sequitur at the moment. Oh well, not to worry, onwards and upwards etc. It will be "alright on the night", hopefully....

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More significantly, work continues in the shed, the lathe is now pretty much installed and as of today I have built the new workbench! This feels much better and I am managing to re-use lots of old timber and other assorted odds and sods.

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I do like a bit of recycling.....

Simon
 

Simon

Flying Squad
After a further visit from Dave with his welding equipment the "water feature", as it is possibly euphemistically called, is now fixed into position at the bottom edge of the new "scene". After levelling in, including putting in top soil for plants to grow along its bottom edge, it is now welded to three metre long pieces of heavy duty angle iron which have been driven into the ground along its upper edge. The additional pieces of steel were needed to bridge the inevitable "gap" between the angle iron stakes and the side of the , er, tank.

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This is possibly being over cautious, but I don't want the dockside to ever move down the hill or push out the rather flimsy retaining wall upon which the edge of this piece of garden is sitting.

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You can see that I have also moved the "rabbit hole"in the shed to a position that will allow the construction of a traverser inside the shed, above the lathe, if I get that far...

The final job finished was welding four legs on to the girder bridge that used to span the garden path on the old line. This enables me to now place it in position over the water feature so that further track base can be constructed off of it.

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Makes the Triang and Airfix versions look a bit flimsy(!)

I will encase the steel uprights in some sort of abutment construction once the bridge is set into position. The original track remains in situ and will be re-used as it is. My two twin power feed wires are both still firmly soldered to the rails, quite satisfying after all those years that the assembly has spent outside.

Here are the new baseboard materials ready for further work!!

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I'm committed now, or probably should be......
 

Simon

Flying Squad
Dave and Tess came over today and we managed to get the girder bridge set into position. The sticky out aluminium had been used with the white spirit level to establish the bridge height relative to the "rabbit hole".

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The marks on the trough side below the bridge in the picture above show where Dave had welded two bridge uprights to the outside of the trough, as pictured below. The bridge uprights are also set into a dry mix of concrete for added security.

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On the other side the bridge uprights are set into a significant quantity of concrete too, the idea is that the whole bridge structure will be very solid as everything else is effectively going to be built off of it.

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Here's a view which gives some idea of how it will look.

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The blocks and shelf brackets are temporary supports that will go when all is set, the steel uprights are intended to be lost inside masonry piers(!) On this side of the water the dockside will sit some 4 inches above the top edge of the trough, on the other side I hope to get vegetation and plants to grow over and above the trough edge. Current thoughts are to use stone "slips" over the steel sides to suggest stone walling, at least a couple of courses down into the water, which will come to the top of the trough.

Or something like that....

So effectively, the first piece of track on the new line has now been laid!

Simon
 
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